The Utah legislature ranks among the best in the nation for state legislative transparency and ease of following the goings-on on Capitol Hill. Here are 10 easy ways you can follow along with the legislative session, which also gives you info for some awesome small talk at dinner parties. Go to the award-winning legislative site: le.utah.gov You can search…

Four days to go until the end of the 2015 legislative session (including today!) Here are four things you need to know about the last few days of the session. 1. The boards will be wiped tonight. That means that all of the bills currently up on the House Reading Calendar and the Senate Reading…

The countdown continues to the end of the 2015 legislative session. Here are 5 bills you may not have heard of. S.B. 89 Aquatic Invasive Species Fee This bill imposes a fee on certain motorboats and sailboats. This bill provides that the fees be used for the purpose of aquatic invasive species interdiction. This bill…

As the 2015 legislative session speeds to a close, I thought it might be fun to start a countdown. 0 With six days left, here are six bills worth watching. 1. Utah Cares, HB 446, is the House proposal for caring for more Utahns needing health coverage. It passed out of committee last night and…

Former Speaker Becky Lockhart has been remembered in a variety of ways but the backhanded compliment in Tuesday’s Senate prayer was one of the most, um, unique. I am hopeful he did not mean it the way it sounded. Rabbi Zippel remembered her by calling her “A woman who served her office with grace and…

Representative Craig Hall had a couple of great bills this year. One of them was HB246, officially titled “Government Ethics Revision,” which dealt with reporting deadlines and lobbyists. Whether through deliberate intentions, neglect or ignorance, some candidates were not filing reports on time – and there were no consequences. Representative Hall, an advocate for ethics, openness…

We have been hearing a lot lately about education funding, WPUs, and one-to-one but we haven’t spent as much time talking about those who really matter: the kids. Those kids who are already in the school system and those who will be entering it in the next few years have a distinct advantage over those…